The drug-packed "nanocell" proved effective and safe against two distinct types of cancer in mice, it was reported yesterday.

It mounts a two-pronged attack against cancer cells, by both cutting off their blood supply and destroying them with a toxic chemical agent.

The approach can be compared with dropping a bomb on the enemy while at the same time cutting off its supply lines, say scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Starve Tumors to Death?

Tumor cells generate their own network of blood vessels to provide them with nutrients and oxygen through a process called angiogenesis. Many researchers are exploring the idea of preventing angiogenesis to starve tumors to death.

But cutting off oxygen from cancer cells can prompt them to create new blood vessels and begin spreading. An obvious solution is to combine anti-angiogenesis with chemotherapy, so that a tumor is destroyed before it has a chance to rebuild its blood vessels.

However, this kind of combination therapy faces an inherent problem. Cutting off the supply lines also removes the means by which chemotherapy drugs reach the tumor.

New Therapy Doubles Survival Rates

Professor Sasisekharan, who led the MIT research team in Cambridge, USA, said, "You can't deliver chemotherapy to tumors if you have destroyed the vessels that take it there. We designed the nanocell keeping these practical problems in mind."

The research discovered that mice treated with the best conventional therapy survived 30 days, while untreated mice died at day 20. But those given the nanocell therapy were still alive after 65 days.